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Archive for February, 2010

Top new novelists for 2010

We all have our favourite authors, but how do you spot a rising star, that new voice in literature that will really make an impression? Lucinda Everett makes it a little easier as we go into 2010, and has picked out some names that won’t be familiar… yet. Here are the debut novels that, we hope, will give all of us something to talk about in the months to come .

” Anyone who believes this new technology is going away is dreaming. Anyone who believes the print publishing industry has a chance to survive in its present form is dreaming. It’s now possible for any small publisher to have free and almost immediate access to the largest bookstore in the world — Amazon. In a few days, a small publisher can have its entire backlist in Kindle format available at Amazon to readers. Salesmen are bypassed, distributors are bypassed, bookstore buyers are bypassed. What will not change much is marketing and promotion — new books will still need to be brought to the attention of the public. But the new books will be Kindle or Kindle-like digital books. ”

From the You Must Be Kidding Me file:

Any of 22 authors, including Iris Murdoch and Joe Orton, could be awarded the coveted Lost Man Booker prize for novels that missed out due to rule changes in 1971

by Sam Jones, from The Guardian.co.uk

” The few seconds between the reading of the shortlist and the tearing open of the prizewinner’s envelope can last a nerve-mangling eternity for even the most garlanded writer. Imagine, then, what it must be like to wait 40 years to discover whether your manuscript has won one of the most prestigious awards in literature.

That is the predicament in which 22 authors – some living, many not – find themselves today as the longlist for the Lost Man Booker prize is announced. ”

That must be one HUGE envelope if it’s taken 40 years to open. Perhaps they should enlist the services of another stationer. I hope they also have a good psychic on hand just in case a deceased author wins. Terribly inconvenient if they don’t.

Read more in the seemingly endless struggle between Amazon and big publishers (in this case MacMillan) from The New York Times:

” After a weekend of brinksmanship, Amazon.com on Sunday surrendered to a publisher and agreed to raise prices on some electronic books.

Amazon shocked the publishing world late last week by removing direct access to the Kindle editions as well as printed books from Macmillan, one of the country’s six largest publishers, which had said it planned to begin setting higher consumer prices for e-books. Until now, Amazon has set e-book prices itself, with $9.99 as the default for new releases and best sellers.

But in a statement Sunday afternoon, Amazon said it would accept Macmillan’s decision. ”